Okay, it’s an interesting story, but here is what I found fascinating. In the comments section, someone wrote the following:

Awesome. Another loud, obnoxious and annoying small aircraft I don't have to hear. WTF flies a 60 year old airplane?

I was curious about the gentleman who wrote that comment. On the chance that his name linked to his Facebook page, I clicked on it. Sure enough, it did. Attached is a picture of him from his Facebook page.

Funny is that most pilots don't build freaking NIMBY groups and don't participate in outlawing motorcycles (a true hog is a ginormous pain in the ass) or work agains boats (speedboat owner in Winterport, ME), but the favor isn't returned...

One of the airports in my area has what poor little working-class me would call "expensive homes" around it. One day I was in the admin office of the airport when someone came in ranting and raving about the airplane noise and saying things like "why can't they fly somewhere else". My back was turned to him and I did my best to try to keep it that way and ignore him, but the voice sounded so familiar that I just had to turn around. Yep, I knew him. In fact, I knew him quite well. He was a captain for a major airline. I even remembered when he bought his house there and while I don't know the exact number of years, it was long after the airport was there.

Reading comments on (non aviation) news sites, dealing with any sort of aviation topic is a perfect recipe for having a short retirement. Especially if you spend time trying to stalk the idiots and then find out what utter morons troll the various websites.

I am not a webmaster by all means. I am a forum administrator and part of the Fake News Network...

I've met a couple pilot NIMBYs that complain about airplane noise. Most cases, they become the loudest complainer in the neighborhood than take over the NIMBY group. The pilot will push the complaints right up until they get the attention of the rule makers and then they quit showing up. The other NIMBYs in the neighborhood won't have enough information to take over where the pilot left off. The cycle then has to starts all over again and no rules are ever made.

Many airline pilots buy homes near a runway were they keep a million dollars of aircraft and hangar. They talk to their fellow pilots while traveling aimlessly discussing ways to combat the shutting down of runways. The best way to stop a runway closer is to take charge of shutting it down then act like a bureaucrat. Demand impact, environmental, benefit/loss, .... studies. Request that the financing of the studies be put to the voters. Drag the NIMBY's request out over a couple decades and hope the next pilot takes over when you are too old. This method of politics have been going on forever but, once we run out of pilots willing to take charge the runway finally goes away.

You do a search for "meigs field story" and you read how powerful the Chicago mafia is. Mayor Daley had a beef with someone who tested his power and/or patience. No matter what anyone or everyone had to say, once Daley decided to prove his kingship nothing including re-election mattered.

I was living downtown Chicago when that happened. Fortunately I kept my airplanes at Clow International in Plainfield, Illinois, but I had a number of friends who had to have their planes dismantled to get them trucked out. The fight over the airport had gone on for years. Same thing happened with the Lincoln Park Gun Club, which also just got shut down one night.

Bob

SUPPORTING MEMBER

BobWest Nyack Aviation, L.L.C. New York, New York - East Hampton, New York & Warwick, New York 631.374.9652rkittine@aol.com WA2YDV

RKittine wrote:I was living downtown Chicago when that happened. Fortunately I kept my airplanes at Clow International in Plainfield, Illinois, but I had a number of friends who had to have their planes dismantled to get them trucked out. The fight over the airport had gone on for years. Same thing happened with the Lincoln Park Gun Club, which also just got shut down one night.

Bob

That is an interesting insight. I understand that some folks took off on the taxiway and got dinged for it. Somehow, it seems that common sense didn't prevail regarding letting the pilots out via the taxiway. Common sense regarding destroying the airport is a whole other topic.

What do you remember regarding the issues of getting aircraft out and what happened to the folks who just left via the taxiway?

Most of the light planes did in fact depart via the taxi way. There were some larger aircraft that also left via the taxi way and as I remember they were the ones that had issues with the local government. Simmons (the local American Beagle) had some part 121 scheduled flights in and out of there. Beech 1900s and Saab 340Bs. I used that airport a lot in the mid to late 80s.

Midway was another one, like East Hampton though much more complicated, where people bought lower cost homes around the airport grounds, converted old buildings to condos etc. and then set out to shut the airport down, which never happened. It was actually expanded as much as possible, though not runway lengths.

When I started instructing part time at Clow in 1986 it was in the middle of a corn field surrounded by farms. There was a glider operation on the one side of the airport and there was a parallel grass runway to the paved one. I remember taking off in a J-3 or BC-12 and landing on farm strips all over the area. Now there is an industrial park on one side, houses at the one end of the runway, a Home Depot at the other and the glider group is gone.

When you have a moment find the Movie FOLKS, all the flight sequences were filled at Clow and along the Fox River. I did some of the flying and got to spend some time with the actors, including Tom Selleck, who was trying to convince everyone he was straight, during that filming. The scene where the planes goes through the hanger and the wings come off was fun to watch how they pulled that off.

Attachments

Sure didn't look like this in 1986

CLOW.jpg (14.25 KiB) Viewed 1888 times

SUPPORTING MEMBER

BobWest Nyack Aviation, L.L.C. New York, New York - East Hampton, New York & Warwick, New York 631.374.9652rkittine@aol.com WA2YDV